You could do that in flight. However, there are a few difficulties:
It seems that APT is on its way out, the last satellite carrying the payload has been launched in 2009. It was supposed to be replaced by LRPT, but plans have apparently mostly been cancelled. Satellites also carry HRPT, but receiving that would be very inconvenient, because it needs a high gain antenna (satellite dish with tracking).
All in all it’s a lot less hassle to use a satellite datalink to download the image you want